This week, our host, Keely Marie chose “Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables”. Like most of Bittman’s recipes, this one is flexible around which ingredients to use. He recommends beans and some type of meat (duck, chicken, Italian sausage) and a ton of vegetables (which I love!).

I decided to use a lot more beans than Bittman calls for and went with three varieties of white beans: navy beans, white kidney beans and baby lima beans. These beans are similar in color, though each one has a slightly different texture and size when cooked. That diversity allows for the use of less meat, without sacrificing taste, texture and flavor.

This recipe is also categorized as a a Sunday Supper because it requires soaking the beans overnight (aka some advance planning) and cooks for a couple of hours on the stove top. Not a weeknight dinner, unless it’s the leftovers.

To see what all the other Food Matters Project members created this week, head over here!

I bought the dried beans in the bulk section. Almost ANY dried white beans will work but try to get some Baby Lima Beans (or Lima Beans or Butter Beans) if you can because they literally melt into the sauce and give it it’s rich and creamy texture! I used about 6 ounces Baby Lima’s, 3 ounces Navy and 3 ounces White Kidney.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in large soup pot or dutch oven. Add sausage and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so sausage browns on all sides.

Add soaked beans, 8 cups water and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and cover. Lower light to a bubbling simmer and cook 1 to 1.5 hours until beans are just soft. (Depends on bean freshness – took me 1 hr, 15 min)

You should have approximately 2 cups of leftover bean liquid. Taste this – isn’t it delicious? Put it in a container (make sure to leave behind the gritty paste that settled to the bottom) and use throughout the week every time you need a splash of stock! Or freeze it for a soup. Yum!

Adjust seasonings if needed and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. I added an additional teaspoon of kosher salt and some more freshly ground black pepper.

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I’m still cooking this recipe, but it is delish! Thank you so much for your site! I needed to use 2 heads of cabbage, so I made your Chicken Stir Fry on Sunday and planned to make this on Monday, before reading about the beans pre-soak. But it made for a perfect snowday recipe!

Actually i didn’t add the sausage/bean mixture back in at that step (6) so it didn’t get the extra 20 minutes simmer. i added at the very end. and it came out just fine. thanks for updating recipe. I look forward to trying a few other recipes on this website.

This recipe sounded amazing, albeit a little more complicated than just throwing everything into a crock pot and letting it simmer. I’m up to the part where i’m simmering the veggies in two cups of reserved bean/sausage “broth” and as i’m reading ahead in the recipe, i don’t see where I add the beans and sausage back in. I’m assuming at the end, but it never mentions them again.

Decided today to stop the insanity and start eating healthy! So happy I found your website – your recipes are motivating me and I can’t wait to get started!
The only problem I have is I am only cooking for my 17 year old daughter and myself. How would I cut the recipes? Even if I freeze & eat leftovers later, which we do often, I still end up throwing food away.
Thanks again for all of your wonderful recipes!

Hi June,
Congrats on your healthy eating journey. I am so glad my recipes are helping!
I highly recommend freezing food in single or double size portions and labeling. Think of it like “homemade fast food” or “homemade microwave meals”. Don’t freeze all of it at once or you will have a lot of waste

I love a good bowl of comforting cassoulet — it’s has been pretty hectic here. And this is what I am usually craving. Easy, delicious and satisfying cassoulets Kiran @ KiranTarun.com recently posted..Whole-wheat mango hot cakes

Thanks to this project I actually really started to cook beans from scratch. Before that, I often thought that it was too much a hassle. But I love how you can just mix beans when starting with dried.Lena recently posted..Vegetarian Sausage and Bean Flatbread